Photo of the Week: Boats Bob in the Waters of Melissani Lake, Kefalonia, Greece

Melissani Lake is a pool of still water in a natural cave. Given the breathtaking beauty of the caves, they have always been an ideal site for rites associated with the divine.

Photo of the Week: Beautiful Waters of the Bocas Islands, Panama

There is a unique vibe about the Bocas del Toro archipelago in far west Panama, the true gateway to the country for overlanders from Costa Rice. It's a bohemian calypso feel that even the hardest at heart will enjoy.

Photo of the Week: The Church of Tisco, Arequipa, Peru

Tisco is one of the highest settlements in Peru's Colca Valley. This church, built before the 18th-century expulsion of Dominican monks Its geographical location, is distinguished by its red décor, made with ochre.

Two 16th-century monuments of the Durbar Square of Patan on the occasion of Krishna Janmashtami (the birth anniversary of Krishna), when thousands of pilgrims and devotees pay homage at a temple.

Photo of the Week: Fire-Knife Dancing in Samoa

Siva Afi, or fire-knife dancing, is one of the most exhilarating aspects of Samoan festivities. Although a traditional pre-war ritual that was used to psych up Samoan warrior, it is today a demonstration of agility.

Photo of the Week: Cheetahs Posing, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Two cheetahs standing ready and vigilant in the rays of another remarkable day at the Selous Game Reserve, the largest ‘unscathed’ game reserve in Tanzania and a UNESCO-recognised World Heritage Site.

Photo of the Week: Mt Yasur Eruption, Tanna Island, Vanuatu

Mt Yasur is the most accessible live volcano in the world, with eruptions every five to ten minutes. The 15-minute trek to the crater increases the prospects of a shortened life, but that’s why thousands make it.

Photo of the Week: the Dazzling Colours of Sunset, The Maldives

As the waves of the Indian Ocean gently lap at your feet and the beach's slowly cooling sands, the sun’s last rays of the day paint the sky with a beautiful range of colours and tones.

What is The Travel Word? Who publishes it?
The Travel Word was launched as the online mouthpiece of the WHL Group, the largest local-travel company in the world, although it is now independent. The Travel Word began by drawing on a vast pool of ideas generated by the WHL Group’s local tour operators, partners, suppliers and more, to showcase stories about responsible, sustainable and local travel. It continues to do this, but has expanded its reach beyond the WHL Group family. Read more about The Travel Word.

What types of articles does The Travel Word run?
Articles on The Travel Word include destination features, travel anecdotes, profiles and interviews, opinion pieces and news about responsible, sustainable and local travel and tourism.

Can anyone be featured on The Travel Word blog?
Preference for written content on The Travel Word used to be given to the destinations and services covered by the WHL Group’s extensive network of local partners and tour operators. Now, however, The Travel Word will consider stories about innovative and ethical tourism projects and practices anywhere in the world.

I have a sustainable tourism project that I think would be of interest to readers of The Travel Word. How can I contact The Travel Word editors?
The Travel Word wants to hear from you! Please drop a note to our editors.

I am a travel writer. Does The Travel Word accept pitches or story suggestions?
You bet. The Travel Word is open to pitches about responsible and sustainable tourism projects, operators and destination. Contact the editors.

What do you mean by responsible and sustainable travel?
There are as many definitions of responsible and sustainable travel as there are travellers. To The Travel Word, travelling responsibly means doing everything possible to make a positive impact on local cultures and environments, while also minimising one’s negative impact. A sustainable travel experience is one that protects and preserves local environments, economies and cultures for future generations to come.

What is local travel?
Travelling locally means forgoing mainstream tourism models in order to connect with locals and experience their customs and culture. Read lots more about it at the Local Travel Movement.

I am a local tour operator. How can I learn more about partnering with the WHL Group?
The WHL Group is actively forging partnerships with local travel operators. Learn more by clicking on the ‘become an operator’ links under the different WHL Group products at www.whl-group.com.

Who reads The Travel Word, anyway?
Our readers are travellers and tourism industry professionals interested in responsible and sustainable travel with a particular emphasis on off-the-beaten-path experiences, often in destinations in the developing world.

Do you have a newsletter? How can I sign up?
Yes! Sign up here to receive our periodic email newsletter. It used to be monthly (you can visit our extensive archives), but has been on hiatus since The Travel Word went independent. We are working hard to bring it back to life.

What is the circulation of the newsletter?
As of late December 2012, when we pushed out our last monthly email newsletter (check out the archive here), it reached approximately 21,000 subscribers.

Tell me more about The Travel Word logo.
Like all fine art, our logo has been interpreted many ways. To us though, it consists of two basic parts: the blue speech bubble and the tri-colour overlapping circles.

The speech bubble has two ‘pointers,’ rather than the typical one, as recognition of the multiple local voices we represent. The shape of these dual pointers resembles the letter ‘w,’ which we consider significant, as it is a first letter in ‘word.’

The tri-colour overlapping circles are again emblematic of the multiple voices and communities into which we reach, who share a common interest in a sustainable future for our planet. The three colours are the same as the three dominant tones used throughout the site. For more about this, read directly below (‘I don’t understand how to navigate the blog. Can you give some clues?’).

I don’t understand how to navigate the website. Can you give some clues?
Content on The Travel Word can be searched according to three colour-coded themes: destination, human interest and responsible/sustainable travel.

Blue is the colour assigned to our articles with a particular focus on a destination. By clicking on the blue ‘LOCATION’ box beneath the photo banner, you can follow prompts to find articles that include coverage of a continent, a world region, a country or a specific destination within that country.

Pink is the colour assigned to our articles that put pride of focus on human interests. For a full list of human-interest topics, click on the pink ‘HUMAN INTEREST’ articles link box beneath the photo banner.

Green is the colour that identifies articles with a strong responsible/sustainable travel slant. Different categories are listed on a page reached by clicking on the green ‘RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL’ articles box beneath the photo banner.

Although there’s no box for it, we also have a ‘NEWS‘ page leading to news articles about the the world, or about WHL Group, its companies and its partnerships.

What is the Photo of the Week?
Each week, The Travel Word presents readers with a unique image showcasing the local character of a particular destination. Pass the mouse over the photo image at the top of any page to pull up a link to the story behind it.